“Lebenshilfe stands for openness, diversity and partnership, for a culture of cooperation and respect.” This is what the German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at the anniversary event of Inclusion Europe’s member Lebenshilfe: The organisation is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

Founded in 1958 by Dutch teacher Tom Mutters together with parents and professionals to make sure that “children can grow up with their families and in the community, and not in segregated institutional settings”, Lebenshilfe has grown to comprise 16 regional and 502 local committees with more than 125.000 members in 2018.

“Participation instead of segregation”

“Tree stand and confessional” – the winning art object

The anniversary event in Berlin, which was attended by Inclusion Europe’s Past President Maureen Piggot, saw Lebenshilfe awarding the winners of their sculpture competition “Ganz plastisch”. Out of 420 submissions 6 had been determined to best represent Lebenshilfe’s motto “Participation instead of segregation” . The first winner was Maximilian Weiger who works in an inclusive arts workshop in his free time. According to the jury, his object “Tree stand and confessional” questions “segregation and discrimination and encourages taking a critical perspective”.

“The competitors have shown us how the diverse ways in which participation and segregation can manifest themselves”, Lebenshilfe’s federal chairwoman Ulla Schmidt pointed out during the award ceremony. The former minister of health and parliamentarian reaffirmed Lebenshilfe’s commitment to “continue advocating for inclusion and participation of people with disabilities.”

“Alles Gute zum Geburtstag” from everyone at Inclusion Europe to Lebenshilfe. We are looking forward to continue working together to make “Participation instead of segregation” a reality in Germany and Europe.

Easy-to-read version

Click on a word which is in bold to read what it means.

“We wish a happy 60th birthday to Lebenshilfe Germany!”

Lebenshilfe is a member of Inclusion Europe in Germany. This year is their 60th birthday. They have celebrated their birthday with an event.

The president of Germany is called Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He was at the event to celebrate the birthday of Lebenshilfe.

He had very nice words to say about Lebenshilfe and its work.

Lebenshilfe was created 60 years ago. Tom Mutters was a Dutch teacher. Tom Mutters created Lebenshilfe together with families of children with disabilities and people who knew a lot about disability.

Their goal was to be sure that children with disabilities could grow up with their families and not in institutions.

Lebenshilfe has grown very much. It has many centres across Germany.

Maureen Pigott is the former president of Inclusion Europe. She took part in the celebration for the birthday of Lebenshilfe.

At this event, Lebenshilfe gave an award for a competition.

6 awards were given to the 6 works of art that best speak for Lebenshilfe’s slogan. Lebenshilfe’s slogan is “Participation instead of segregation”.

The first winner was Maximilian Weiger. He is an artist who works in an inclusive arts workshop.

His work of art for Lebenshilfe is called “Tree stand and confessional”.

A tree stand is a chair in a tree where a hunter sits. It helps the hunter to get a good overview of the forest and the animals.

A confessional is a big wooden box in a church.

The priest sits in the middle and people sit behind a curtain or a window.

They can talk to the priest, but the priest cannot see them.

People use the confessional when they want to talk to a priest about bad things they have done.

A jury decided to award the work of Maximilan Weiger because it makes you think of segregation and how unfair discrimination is.

Ulla Schmidt works for Lebenshilfe.

She was also an important member of the government of Germany some years ago.

She said that Maximilian really deserves the prize.

She said that the works of all the participants in the competition show very well what segregation is and what inclusion is.

She said that Lebenshilfe is working really hard for the inclusion of people with disabilities.

We at Inclusion Europe want to wish a very happy birthday to everybody at Lebenshilfe.

We are looking forward to continuing our work together, for the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in Germany and all over Europe.